Corrinel

Does anyone know exactly how to get from Milan to Cinque Terra via train? I'm staying at Manarola. The more exact the better please and thanks.

Improviser

Where in Cinque Terre? The more exact the better.

yorkshire

Search at http://www.trenitalia.com, as there are many options depending on date and time. I always like to minimize transfers myself.

bobthenavigator

There are 3 direct[ no connections] IC trains from Milano Cenrale to Monterosso that take about 3 hours. The times are 08:10, 12:10 and 14:05. From there you take the local CT train to Manarola---about 5 minutes.

PalenQ

If you do not find the direct trains convenient then anytime of day practically you can take a train from Milan to Genoa and change to hourly trains that service Monterosso where you may well have to change to the local shuttle train that serves all five Cinque Terre villages - though some trains from Genoa may stop at Manarola.

These are IC or regional trains where you can just show up and bu tickets without any problems and they are cheap compared to Italy's high-speed trains - no advance planning needed for buying tickets - unlike on high-speed trains where you can save a lot by booking months in advance (and not being able to later change the time or date).

I like the German Railways official site's pan-European train schedule site (www.bahn.de) - easier for me to use than trenitalia.com - a good way to access its English schedule page is to go to the home page of www.budgeteuropetravel.com and click on the link 'the best on-line European train schedule' or some such wording and it brings you right to the English schedule page where you put in MIlan and Manarola for a certain date (try a dummy date if your are too far in advance to be listed yet - train times rarely change much during the year) - I reference this home page link because it also gives you several valuable tips on fully using as a novice user the Wunderbar www.bahn.de site - also check www.seat61.com and www.ricksteves.com for great info on Italian trains.

PalenQ

direct trains Milan to Manarola take 3.5 hours but leave too early - 7:20am foir most or not until noon or so - other links involving a change or two can be as quick and you can leave anytime - excpet about 4 hours all told.

PalenQ

http://wikitravel.org/en/Cinque_Terre

some really nice stuff on the 5 Lands here!

Corrinel

I like the sound of the direct train at 8:10 AM. I am also going to check out the links provided as I have to figure out best way to get from CT to Naples.

Thank you everyone!

Corrinel

in regard to the direct trains, what does 'IC' stand for?

PalenQ

IC stands for Inter-City - the second to lowest spiffy trains in Italy, above Regional trains and below so-called high-speed trains. IC train cars are generally older rolling stock and seem to be being phased out on many routes. They have fairly flat fares so if taking them not much savings over buying far ahead (unless you can take a high-speed train perhaps on a different routing and get one of those ballyhooed 9 euro fares (possible when they come on the system months in advance but they go very quick and are strictly limited in number).

But on this route usually very little if any savings - on regional trains none - IC tickets should include a seat reservation for a specific train car on a specific train at a specific time - this comes when you buy them.

IC trains are IME significantly more comfy than regional trains which at times IME even have hard - metal seats.